Reviews with content warning for Violence - Gilded Cage

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

yourbookishbff's review

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved every single thing about this book. This is childhood friends to rivals to lovers, with a prickly bisexual female main character and her opal-obsessed childhood best friend and former lover back from the (penal) colonies and wanted for murder. K.J. Charles bridges moments of authentic reflection and moments of absolute absurdity so well, and our jewel-heist-gone-awry creates a compelling (and delightfully stressy) premise. I appreciate the attention to character development here, as both main characters are forced to confront their own insecurities and mistakes, and love witnessing the new and sustainable bond they forge. The character work makes this HEA feel rock-solid. This series is FUN and hot and queer and I just love it. Also - the on-page discussions of pregnancy prevention, miscarriage, and sexual health are so well done.

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unsuccessfulbookclub's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

KJC has give us yet another emotionally evolved man and a spitfire of a woman in this jewel-heist turned murder plot with twists and turns and oh yeah, SWOOOOONNNNN.

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language_loving_amateur's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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genizah's review

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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wardenred's review

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emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

You need to run, Temp. You need to run far, fast, and right now.

This was even better than I expected, and I have to say I had some pretty high expectations! The romance was lovely, with all the best parts of enemies to lovers, second chance romance, and reunited childhood friends/sweethearts blended into one, complete with an awesome rendition of the "only one bad" thrown in. Susan is such a genuinely awesome character: strong, smart, stubborn, practical, hiding her vulnerabilities even from herself. I loved getting into her head and being exposed to the way she sees the world. And Templeton/James's journey that was half redemption and half figuring out who he is? Chef's kiss.

It was also awesome to see all the familiar faces, though I regret that while I met both Jerry and Alec again, I never got to see them together. I mean, maybe it's a good thing, because those two would totally steal the show for me and I would probably just focus on a one-paragraph interaction so much that I would forget about the actual novel's plot... but I still regret not getting to see them together, okay. They're my absolute favorite couple, across all K.J. Charles's works and maybe ever.

I also enjoyed how deeply ingrained this book is in the rest of the series. The personal arcs stem straight from Any Old Diamonds, and the external plot is rooted in The Rat-Catcher's Daughter. And let's not forget how this entire series is basically a sequel to that one book from the earlier Sins of the Cities series that I really need to re-read one of these days.

I also just need to scream for a moment about K.J. Charles's writing. The dialogue! The brief description that pain such big pictures! The emotion! The mood-setting! I want to write like that when I grow up. (Yeah, yeah, all grown up already... who cares if I don't feel like it? :D)

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